2 David Lane - Editor The Need for a Level Head A number of stories about children and young people have been in the media in the last month, but child porn on the internet has been near the top of the list, getting a lot of column inches. As with all new subjects, a lot of nonsense gets talked. Writers have to fill their pages, and ignorance is wonderful in the way it creates space in the mind for imagination. Indeed, ignorance is one of the problems if we want a reasoned debate on this subject. Unless one has received unsolicited child porn on the internet, the only way to find out about child porn is to use one's credit card details and download it. And if one does that, one is committing an offence - in the United Kingdom, anyway. So one is not likely to know what one is talking about, unless one has committed the crime by participating in the porn industry oneself as a consumer. Some facts are clear. The first and most obvious is that any child who is photographed or videoed while being abused is suffering double abuse. Their exploitation and humiliation is put on record for others to share. Secondly, those who seek child porn out to view it for their sexual satisfaction are guilty of abuse. Unless they had sought that sort of material, it would not have been put on the web, and the children abused for the sake of the pictures would not have suffered. Thirdly, there is a clear distinction between people who simply like nice pictures of kids and those who want sexual stimulation from viewing pictures of abuse. It is important to say this, because alarm can cause all sorts of unnecessary and unhelpful reactions. When child sexual abuse by parents first became news, lots of really good fathers suddenly became worried about bathing their young daughters in case people suspected them of something inappropriate. We must not have witch hunts.. Fourthly, it seems that there is a difference between those who are hooked on the porn who reputedly hoard tens of thousands of pictures - which thankfully makes them easier to apprehend - and those who look once, are horrified and try to obliterate what they saw from their computers' memories. Computers have long memories, though, and experts can offer find what was wiped. We need to make sure that the serious campaign to trap and deal with the pornographers does not suffer disrepute by getting caught up with the one-offs. The American police research tracked down 7262 people in the United Kingdom who had paid to get hold of child porn in what is known in the UK as Operation Ore. Of course, that may not be the end of it ; there may be more people in other networks. It is still a lot of people, and it is said that among them are a judge, over fifty policemen and a lot of other professionals. It is a good thing that their details are known. Paedophiles need to learn that using modern technology may look as though it has given them incredible opportunities to access pictures. If so, it has led them into a trap, because they will always be vulnerable to getting caught, once they have started to download the material. Anyone thinking of starting their own child porn computer library should watch out. They will, one day, get caught, and their world will crash round their ears. Better not to start. Better to go and get counselling, to try to understand what makes you want to get involved in the first place. That's better for the children too. Then, they won't need to be abused, and they won't have the terrible burden of the hurt suffered hanging round their necks for the rest of their lives.